Volume 5 Events

METHODISM BROADENING OUT

JANUARY 15, 1767, TO DECEMBER 30, 1769

PRINCIPLE EVENTS

Hannah Ball's Sunday school at High Wycombe. [Many features of the previous three years are prominent in this period. If possible, Wesley was burdened more than ever by the care of all the Churches. He tells his brother on December 17, 1768, with something like a sigh, 'I have no time for Handel or Avison now.' But he made time to guide Joseph Benson in his reading at Kingswood, little thinking that he was preparing an editor of high capacity for his beloved Magazine, That was still unborn but Benson was evidently destined to be one of Wesley's most influential and powerful preachers.]

Three new lady correspondents were added to Wesley's list at this time. Hannah Ball at High Wycombe abounded in good works, and began her Sunday school nearly fourteen years before Robert Raikes started his in Gloucester. Nancy Bolton, of Witney, became one of Wesley's most favored correspondents. Mary Bishop, of Bath, was a teacher and thinker after Wesley's own heart.

There are signs in the correspondence of the renewal of the Calvinistic Controversy, which was to flame up around the Minutes of the Conference of 1770. George Whitefield is described at the time as 'still breathing nothing but love': but the letter to Joseph Townsend in August 1767 points to the coming storm. The letters to Charles Wesley are of the deepest significance and there is a pathetic touch about the fragment of a letter to his old friend Mrs. Woodhouse asking for particulars of John Whitelamb, who had been his father's curate and had married Mary Wesley. The effort to clear off the debts of the Connection is one of the outstanding features of this period. Wesley left no stone unturned to accomplish this object, in which preachers and friends gave him the most generous and unwearying support. The last letter is one of unique interest. Wesley had sent his first two preachers to America, where Methodism had already taken root, and was himself thinking of another voyage across the Atlantic, though that was never accomplished.

THE CALVINISTIC CONTROVERSY

JANUARY 1, 1770, TO DECEMBER 28, 1771

PRINCIPLE EVENTS

The storm aroused by the Doctrinal Minutes of the Conference in 1770 is the outstanding feature of these years, The Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, who was the prime mover in the onslaught made on Wesley, was convinced by the declaration of the ensuing Conference that he 'had mistaken the meaning of the doctrinal points in the Minutes.' Wesley's attitude is shown in his letters to his brother, to the Countess of Huntingdon, and to Mary Bishop. John Fletcher proved himself a masterly champion of Wesley's Minutes and a noble example of the Christian controversialist.

America takes its place in the correspondence of the period. Wesley was strongly urged to go over to see the work with his own eyes. The death of Whitefield on September 30, 1770, marks the close of the most memorable friendship and partnership of the Evangelical Revival; and the funeral sermon which Wesley preached on November 18 shows how deeply he loved his friend and gloried in his boundless influence.

The correspondence with Joseph Benson has special importance; and Wesley's affectionate care for young Christians is seen in letters to Ann Bolton and to the members of the Perronet family. Nor should the letter 'To a Nobleman' be overlooked. It is another illustration of Wesley's far-reaching influence over spiritually-minded men and women in all ranks of society. The straightforward candor of such letters as that to Mary Bosanquet on January 2, 1770, is characteristic. The letters to his preachers give a vivid picture of his vigilant oversight of all the work of Methodism.

A QUIETER INTERVAL

JANUARY 5, 1772, TO DECEMBER 31, 1773

PRINCIPLE EVENTS

The years 1772 and 1773 are not marked by any outstanding events. Wesley pursued his work with unflagging zeal. He writes to his brother on March 25, 1772: 'Oh what a thing it is to have curam animarum! You and I are called to this to save souls from death, to watch over them as those that must give account!' 'I am ashamed,' he adds, 'of my indolence and inactivity.' That was the spirit of the veteran evangelist.

The number of letters to Methodist women shows how they turned to him for counsel not only in spiritual things but in the concerns of their daily life. His anxiety about the health and well being of Nancy Bolton comes out strongly in several letters to her at this time. It must be remembered also that such devoted women as Mrs. Bennis and Hannah Ball were used as means to stir up and guide his preachers in many parts of their teaching and work.

The letters to Christopher Hopper, Joseph Benson, and Thomas Wride show how vigilant was Wesley's oversight of the work in the three kingdoms; and the important letter of December 4, 1773, to Thomas Rankin, who had gone to take charge in America, is perhaps the most sage and significant in the correspondence of this period. The renewal of intercourse with his old friend and convert James Hutton is a happy feature: and one sees Wesley's pleasant irony at the expense of Peter Jaco in the letter of October 7, 1773, which suggests that a camel or an elephant would be necessary for such an itinerant.

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